State leaders and civil rights veterans celebrated the opening of Two Mississippi Museums and the state's 200th anniversary of statehood.
Justin Sellers/Clarion Ledger

Myrlie Evers, widow of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, is bundled up in a borrowed overcoat as she listens to speakers during the grand opening ceremony for the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum on Saturday, Dec. 9, 2017, in Jackson.(Photo: Rogelio V. Solis/AP)

JACKSON, Miss. — Across the street from where police once held protesters behind barbed wire, President Trump glimpsed photographs and artifacts that documented the heartbreak, determination and courage of those involved in Mississippi’s civil rights movement.

Trump attended Saturday’s opening of the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, which are part of the state’s 200th birthday.

After his brief tours, Trump came to an auditorium filled with hundreds of elected officials, special guests and a handful of veterans of the civil rights movement.

Other veterans, including U.S. Reps. John Lewis and Bennie Thompson, stayed away from the ceremony because of Trump.

In his speech, Trump praised Medgar Evers, the Mississippi NAACP field secretary who “investigated grave injustices” and “loved his family and his country. ... He believed we should treat every citizen as an equal child of God.”

Four days after his June 12, 1963, assassination, Evers was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors, Trump said. “The headstones do not reflect the color of their skin but the courage of their deeds.”

He called Evers “a great American hero” and praised Evers' brother Charles, Ed King and Myrlie Evers-Williams, who were all in attendance in the small auditorium.

Later, the widow of Medgar Evers spoke to the thousands assembled outside and recounted what it was like seeing the photographs from the civil rights museum: “I wept because I felt the blows, I felt the bullets, I felt the tears, I heard the cries, but I also sensed the hope in those children.”

The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum is the first of its kind in the nation to be state-sponsored and state-funded. Another $19 million has been raised privately for the exhibits, and millions more have been raised to ensure that every ninth-grade student in Mississippi can visit the museums.

Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, a Freedom Rider who was arrested and sent to prison in 1961, called the new civil rights museum “amazing. Never did I dream that I would see a Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.”

Minnijean Brown Trickey, one of the Little Rock Nine, said the museum tells the truth “that needed to be told. And it’s well done.”

“Never did I dream that I would see a Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.”

Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, former Freedom Rider

Mike Espy, who in 1987 became the first black Mississippian elected to Congress since Reconstruction, called the museum “an unvarnished portrayal of what happened years ago. Everyone should see it, regardless of race and age. Many will be impressed, but all will be affected.”

National NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said he appreciates the care taken “to tell the accurate story. To tell the whole story would take two more buildings.”

Vernon Dahmer Sr. died defending his family from a nighttime attack by the Ku Klux Klan on Jan. 10, 1966.

Inside the civil rights museum, Trump viewed a photograph of the four Dahmer sons, all in the armed forces at the time, returning home to find their family home burned to the ground.

The Dahmer family skipped Trump’s speech but attended the opening ceremonies.

Dahmer’s son Dennis, who was 12 when the Klansmen attacked the family, talked about the words spoken Saturday by politicians and others.

“It’s not just the words, it’s the meaning behind the words that are important,” he said. “It’s the actions that come behind the words that are really important.”

He praised the museum.

“It’s a great day for Mississippi,” he said. “I never thought I’d see a museum have what I consider a factual telling of the story of the civil rights movement in the state of Mississippi.”

Follow Jerry Mitchell on Twitter: @JMitchellNews

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Mississippi Civil Rights Museum Director Pamela Junior talks about the new museum's central exhibition before presenting a question which may provoke introspection in visitors.
Sarah Warnock